Joshu Holds A Press Conference
M.V. Montgomery
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About the book:
Joshu Holds a Press Conference takes the reader on an epoch-hopping quest for knowledge. Combining urbane wit and an infectious enthusiasm for discovery, these poems abandon the familiar caricatures of history for starkly human faces. This is investigative journalism par excellence, capturing lost snapshots of the past and revealing its attendant saints and devils. The poet’s triumph lies in reminding us that the real treasures of the world are still waiting to be found.
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About the author:
M[ichael] V[incent] Montgomery is a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is currently a professor in the General Education Department at Life University in Marietta, Georgia, teaching courses in English, film, and philosophy.
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“M V Montgomery’s thoughtful poems are glimpses of historical moments, by turns moving, perceptive, haunting and funny. A pleasure to read, and an education.”
– Alex von Tunzelmann, historian and columnist
“One thing that’s impossible to argue with in M V Montgomery’s Joshu Holds A Press Conference is its ambition – in essence he presents us with a history of the world from Hercules to Barack Obama told by way of biographies in verse… an admirable project”
– Declan Ryan, Poetry London
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Excerpt:
LOOKING AT GARGOYLES
The gargoyles from their rooftops hiss and spit,
gargling rainwater and jutting out rude tongues.
Unclean monkeys, St. Bernard called them.
Curved horns, ribbed wings, outthrust brows,
flared lips and nostrils to out-Bruegel Bruegel.
Not just devilish fiends—gluttony, sullenness,
pride—stone faces contort with every human flaw.
And then a whole pagan bestiary reveals itself:
dragons, griffons, minotaurs, satyrs, sea serpents,
lions, rams, boars, wolves, bulldogs, cat-eagles,
rabbit-snakes, fish-lizards, and feisty roosters.
Hung like trophy heads from old battlements,
they presented an argument for the early Church,
which not only conquered all demons, but self-
evidently put them to work (protecting the sacred
masonry from run-off). As one account goes,
a dragon, Gargouille, once terrorized Rouen
and couldn’t be slain until a church was promised.
Later, its head was placed upon the town gate
to remind the heathens of the building contract.
Cathedrals, after all, took decades to complete.
Masons needed their reminders to stay on task.
Yet, these lively waterspouts don’t inspire fear.
Once brightly painted, their ugliness still allures.
Pope Gregory saw the appeal, thought gargoyles
might well attract formerly pagan congregants.
Paradoxical, then, to find these statues placed
so often at cornices where only God could see.
All as if to say: Here is a taste of fun, but don’t
come too close. Look, but don’t gaze or ogle.
Those of us who have felt an ache in the neck
examining gargoyles may be guilty of such a sin.
Perhaps, we remain too much the heathen at heart.
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Additional Information:
ISBN 978-0-9563137-5-1
56 page paperback
Language: English
Publication Date: 30.06.2010
